In this segment, Wylie Aitken, chairman of the Democratic Foundation of Orange County, talks about the importance of Orange County to national candidates’ fundraising.

This transcript will be nearly complete and verbatim. There were portions of our conversation before and after I turned the tape recorder on, and they will not appear. And there has been minor editing for clarity.

— Martin Wisckol

Do you have a sense of how important the Democrats’ donor community is here, compared to the Republicans’? In the presidential race, we see both parties coming through the area, but the Republicans are coming more frequently.

I think we’re significantly important. We have had Hillary Clinton here. We have had (Barack) Obama here. We have had John Edwards here. We have had Gov. (Bill) Richardson here. (Dennis) Kucinich was here. We’ve had the major candidates. The others have probably not come because there’s not a lot of money for them to come for.

I think the reason that this is viewed as more important for the Republicans than for the Democrats is that we – Orange County – compete with West L.A., Beverly Hills. It’s heavily Democrat there, and there is Ron Berkel and other people like him who can raise major, major amounts of money.

We raise major amounts of money – probably the second largest group of fundraising in California – but we’re really competing with L.A. They have all the major television stations. They have all the major newspapers, except for the Register. So to a large degree, Orange County gets lost in the shuffle.

Since the Republicans cannot be hugely successful in West L.A. and Beverly Hills and the film industry – of course there always a few film people who break, and side with the Republicans, but overwhelmingly it’s Democratic — and so they’ve recognized that a lot of their fundraising has to be done down here.

So we (Democrats) suffer from the little-brother syndrome. Not that we’re not significant. I wish I could have you taking all my calls, Martin, from people I’ve never heard of. People from Connecticut and all over. You get your name on all those (donor) lists and I get calls at home from someone running for Congress in Florida and I have no idea who they are. Then I’ve got to come back and talk to Loretta and run it through the DCCC to see if this person has a realistic chance of winning.

We get a great deal of attention. Probably more than we actually want. We have done significant fundraisers for all three major candidates. They certainly know we exist. The problem is that they would much rather, if they could, fly into LAX and convince us to drive up. Rather than have them drive down. But we’ve been very staunch and stern about that.

Martin Wisckol covers coastal environment and development. Previously, he spent two decades as politics reporter and columnist for the Orange County Register. He’s also held reporting positions in Miami, Jacksonville, Detroit and his hometown of San Diego, with an emphasis on land use and urban planning. He is a lifelong surfer and has spent most of his life on the coast. His work has been honored by the Society of Professional Journalists, the National Headliner Awards, the California Newspaper Publishers Association, the Florida Press Club and the American Planning Association Florida Chapter.